The present invention relates to a method of linking source units of food to product items comprising the source units of food.
Food production operations often involve conversion of source units of food into product items. For example in the meat processing industry, animal carcass source units are converted into smaller product items (e.g., meat cuts).
It is desirable to be able to link such product items of food with their original source units in order to track or trace the origin of a product item or the destination of a source unit of food in such conversion processing. This linking may be useful, for example, in providing assurance to consumers or regulators that a product item for sale was actually derived from an animal source unit that was raised or processed under the stated conditions. For example, some consumers desire assurance that “organically grown” beef products were derived from cows that were actually raised by organic methods. Some regulators may want verification or certification that meat product items were derived from animal source units that were raised free from supplemental growth hormones, antibiotics, or biotechnological methods.
The linking of source units of food with the product items of food derived from the source units is also useful to assure food safety and also to assist in product recall, if necessary. The link between a source unit and a product item derived from the source unit provides information helpful in tracing the destination of a suspect source unit of food or the origin of a suspect product item. Such traceability of food is increasingly important in view of harmful pathogens and viruses that have been associated with food product items derived from animal source units. For example, to minimize the effect of an outbreak of food poisoning caused by the presence of e. Coli bacteria in food product items, investigators seek to quickly determine the origin of the source units from which the contaminated food product items were derived in order to effectively conduct product item recall. The same is true for cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and other contaminations.
It has often proven difficult for producers and investigators to identify the actual source units (i.e., the specific animals or animal carcasses) from which contaminated food product items were derived. This is because the processing operations involved in converting the source units to product items may be complex and large, such as at a modem meat processing operations. Typically, the only detail possible is the identification of the producer of the contaminated food product item (e.g., the company that processed the meat) or the identity of a group of meat-processing facilities from which the contaminated food product item possibly originated.
Complication exists because numerous entities handle the source units of meat cuts at various stages of processing and sales. For example, grazers, growers, slaughterers, fabricators, and distributors each participate in the process of meat production. Growers obtain animals from grazers, and increase the weight of the animals through a feeding process. Slaughterers purchase the animals from growers and convert animals into primary meat products, such as animal carcasses. Fabricators process the carcasses or other larger meat parts into desired portion sizes, package the resulting smaller meat cuts, and forward them to distributors. Distributors usually sell the meat cuts to retail marketers, who in turn sell them to consumers.
The task of linking source units to product items is especially challenging for meat fabricators. When a fabricator cuts animal carcasses into increasingly smaller meat cuts, the cuts may easily mix or mingle; and it is impractical and expensive to tag or label each cut to provide direct linkage of a cut meat product item with its preceding source unit.
As a result of the inability to effectively locate the original source units from which contaminated or suspect food product items were derived, there have been unnecessarily broad recalls and destruction of uncontaminated food product items in an effort to assure the recall of the entire amount of potentially contaminated product items. Further, the lack of effective linking methodology may have precluded the entry of some food products into regulated markets that require assurance of the links between a product item of food and its source unit.